[OPEN] baby wake up i found the plot

[simplicitas]

Who: Elsword & You
What: A curated selection of our finest bullshit including: making a grave for a child, sharing the Plot, repairing his armour, and... fishing!
When: Backdated to mid-June
Where: Outside :)
Warnings: There will be mentions of a dead child, but otherwise not too grim. Other warnings TBD/in tag headers.


i. this is the plot-relevant prompt
cw: electrocution mention

[Elsword is feeling a bit better after getting electrocuted within an inch of his life the other day, finally able to move about and do things again. The first thing he does isn't something ostensibly normal, though — the boy never is. Rather, he's coming up to you with a framed photograph, large and featuring a group of many people. One of the people in it looks like you from the past, however you were — younger, in a different form, whichever it may be — and Elsword taps a claw against the frame as he hands it off to you.]

Did we... Did I know you when I was a kid? And I... forgot about it?

[It's difficult to see, but the little redheaded boy in the photograph — no older than thirteen — bears a striking resemblance to the boy in front of you now. If you squint, anyway.]

ii. in memoriam
cw: mentions of a dead child

[Just outside the manor — well, actually, about ten feet away from it, but still — Elsword is holding a large piece of stone in his lap, sitting down in the grass and dragging the clawed finger of his gauntlet against the rock face. If you look closely or approach, you might catch the soft, golden glow of magic, as he tries to carve something into it.

Your footsteps alert him, but all he does is swivel his head around briefly to look at you and nod, before setting back to what he's doing. He's got a few flowers next to him as well, and Leon is curled up at his side, slow-blinking at you with his head against his giant paws.]

iii. i didn't go to blacksmithing school

[It's late into the evening, a bit past dinnertime, when Elsword finally doffs his armour and sits outside the inn hammering away at it. When he went into the mansion, it got messed up by a giant wolf attacking, see, and the consequence he suffered upon leaving it made it worse. He hasn't had time until now to actually sit down and try to repair it, and boy...

...boy, he gets why this is a Profession and not just Something Anyone Can Do.

Dinged-up, broken armour isn't good for combat. It gets weaker every blow until it fractures, and by that point, you're likely to get pieces of metal embedded in you when it fully breaks, depending on luck. He's like... pretty sure that's how it works, anyway. But man... man, every hammer strike seems to make it worse, and there's not a proper forge to fix things in.]

Do you know how to fix armour?

[Maybe he should just give up and go without.]

iv. feesh

[He's feeling a little out of sorts for the rest of the week, no idea why other than "emotions are starting to bubble up to the surface" and "had a generally bad time with the mansion"... so to take the edge off, Elsword can be found doing what Elrians do best.

Fishing.

He's silently sitting by the riverbank on a log, wearing a hat that reads "THE EL WANTS ME, FISH FEAR ME", and catching just... myriads of fish. So many fish for to munch. They're piling up on the bank fairly quickly.

Please feel free to just rob him he won't miss any of these.]

Comments

FEESH

[amethystic]

( it's been... a rough couple of days! a very rough couple of days. and even without the literal shared electrocution, felicity's been worried for elsword ever since he first burst in looking for add.

so he goes fishing, and she comes by not long after with a sketchbook and a pack of art supplies. she doesn't say anything as she sits beside him, simply sketching different things- the fruit trees, some of the fish, elsword himself- and his silly hat- and for a quiet moment, everything is peaceful.

up until she leans over and lifts up a prismatic turtle- )

Just what are you...?

[simplicitas]

[Elsword finally bothers to glance up when she holds the turtle up. He's been so zoned into his fishing... out here not armoured, for once, wearing a goofy hat because the shopkeep put it on his head when he went to buy the rod and the bait, just living in the moment.]

...it's a Nasod turtle. [He states.] They can be caught back home. I guess you wouldn't really eat it, though. I wasn't paying attention.

[amethystic]

Nasod...?

( it's cute. almost holographic. ...something he remembered on his own, though. she sets it on her lap. it's a friend now. )

Are you having fun?

[simplicitas]

Yeah. I'm good at fishing. It's almost competitive on Elrios.

["Almost" is kind of a lie. It can be very competitive where their group is concerned. He has watched Laby bite people over catching a bigger fish.]

Someone in the group... I don't remember who, but someone always caught the biggest fish, somehow. I remember a fish the size of my torso hanging from the rod, and everyone saying "you look proud"... but I don't remember who it was.

[Probably Raven, or Ciel... maybe Elesis? Hm.]

attacks again (1)

[amethystic]

( she's been meaning to ask what he got from their ill-fated crimes, but this is... uh.


sorry, elsword, she sees where you're pointing, but shes a bit hung up on someone else. felicity stares, eyes wide, before she frowns and gently taps a pair in the photograph- the black haired man holding a little girl with pink hair. )

That- that's me and my brother... But... that should be impossible. And I don't remember this at all.

[simplicitas]

Your brother...? I haven't seen him before.

[But, well, if the last time Elsword saw said brother was when he was thirteen and still a redhead... yeah, that would make sense. Elsword doesn't remember a lot of people.

At the same time, the guy hasn't been here recently, and that... bodes ill.]

...this kid here is... [he's. pointing at Add, but the name Add is not rising to his lips. Fuck, fuck, not yet, not now. It's too soon.] ...I know him. But I haven't seen him in a while. Is your brother the same, maybe?

[amethystic]

... I haven't seen him since I was six. I don't recognize anyone in this picture at all...

( but before she can get lost in the details, elsword speaks again and- ...no... frowning, she gently touches his shoulder. )

Add. It's Add.

[simplicitas]

...it's Add, [he exhales, closing his eyes against the strain of just — remembering, just trying to keep it all inside.] Right. Sorry.

...and sorry, about your brother.

i. caoimhe white man blinking gif

[amhran]

W-What is this...? [ Caoimhe holds the item delicately in her hand, her eyes scanning its intricate details. Among the figures engraved upon it, she recognizes two other girls—her best friends, her sisters. Maeve - blue hair with a pet snake, and Caragh, scraggily black hair with a stout and fierce expression... They were the ones who had been there for her, who raised her like family when her own community wouldn't. They of course, like many others in this image - were not here now.] I... Don't know what this is - Caragh and Maeve is here too...

[ Caoimhe begins moving the item around, unaware of what it is and how a moment of her past was captured into it. She is trying hard to comprehend it - but decompresses her confusion into an understanding that this was a type of magic she had never seen before. Her fingers dance along its shape, and in her own inevitability she lets out a gentle sigh. Holding fast now to a longing look at her small figure. ] It's... Been.... So long since I have seen myself as a child. [ Caoimhe places a finger upon her own head, tense memories burden her thoughts leaving her in a slight fog. ] I wonder... What this all means?

[simplicitas]

...I don't know. I wonder, too.

[He hasn't seen anyone like her friends around, but he recognizes her, at least. The people here now, he knows. The people who he met previously, who left, are but foggy memories in his mind.]

I was hoping you remembered. I don't. [But that's not new, with him.]

[amhran]

... For me to not remember... Is an even stranger circumstance... My people... We pride ourselves in our memory... To be unable to recall - is akin to myself becoming sick... [ Her voice gentle, gives way to the frailty of her inner feelings. ] Here you should keep it. Perhaps.. You can find something out about it?

[simplicitas]

I'll see if I can.

[He'll keep it safe, and that's a promise.]

...I'm sorry. About your memory, I mean. If it's any consolation, I... have something similar.

iii. me either

[amhran]

U-Um... I-I don't but.. I can do this - ? [ With that she casts Mending and it takes a little bit of time but ultimately so long as every piece of the armor had already remained upon it. The armor returns back to its original shape - a sort of time magic. ]

[simplicitas]

[Cue Elsword just. staring. at this. Like what? What.]

...whoa. [The emotion and awe in the word does not quite reach his voice.] That's a really cool spell. Can you do that with everything?

[amhran]

Ah - yes... Well no... Items that are magical in making. I cannot mend the magic of them, as that requires a certain level of understanding of the weave that... I lack.. However - I can mend items broken much like this. So long as all the pieces are together for the most part... For something like a vase... I could if it shattered - but it would take so long.

i

[lostpsalm]

<sub>[ the young rennuid, in the photograph, has cloud-gray hair.

he freezes when he sees his own young face. it doesn't make sense. it doesn't make sense. he'd never left the skittering wood, until GllChk had brought him out. but the backdrop in this depiction doesn't look like the woods of home.

when he was the age in this... record, he was too busy spending every evening he could sneaking off, alone, to the ruins, to do ANYTHING else-- but that's. that's him.

rennuid stares at the photograph a long time. when he finally moves... he pets Tiny Tyr'oc's big hair spike. then.. he hands the picture back. ]</sub>

Tyr'oc...I...

_{[ rennuid smiles like something hurts. ]}

It seems... we've both changed a lot.

<sub>[ young rennuid is quite recognizable. but he looks very different from the wispy young man of today. he's much fitter, and has cute, squishy round cheeks. that stormy-gray hair is short; just a messy, fluffy nest on his head. his body language in the photo is shy, but happy.


he was so little. ]</sub>

[simplicitas]

I barely remember looking like that.

[The Trader gave him a mission, to find shards of an enchanted mirror so that he could find himself. He has one of them, and it showed him a distant memory of himself and some of his friends when they were kids. But not like this. Their whole group is here in this photo, all younger, but some of them Elsword can no longer name clearly.

It's... a large photo.]

But... you're not from Elrios. And I'm not from where you come from. So...

[So how, then, are they in this photo, together, younger?]

1/2

[lostpsalm]

_{[ he handed it back, already, but... Rennuid slithers closer, just enough that there's a clear hover of space between them touching at any one point. ]}

Perhaps the place around us is a clue... ah?

2/2

[lostpsalm]

That's... I almost didn't see.
This is someone else, from my home. My big brother.

_{[ he points at an elven man, whose ears are way higher up than his, pointing up-- looking almost like a bunny. He doesn't have the same lavender skintone as Rennuid, but.. the gray hair is similar, and there's something reminiscent, in the build and face. ]}

...if it was him without me, I wouldn't be... surprised. He'd go places... all over. I wouldn't be surprised, if you told me he saw another world. But... not me.


...I never left the forest before.. t, two? Years ago?

ii sorry i am just. COMING for you

[lostpsalm]

<sub>[ rennuid... sits with him. it isn't long until he's petting Leon, smoothing down fur and picking out leaves. he's seen how humans mark their dead. he thinks about last rites, what they mean. what they could mean.

finally, he says, ]</sub>

...There are flowers that grow on their own to mark the dead, where I came from. I've never.. seen them here. But... I can make them, with paper or fabric. To help mark this.

[simplicitas]

[Leon slow-blinks at Rennuid. Elsword, meanwhile, stays still.]

...can you? That would be nice, I think. The little girl would probably appreciate it.

[lostpsalm]

To mark the dead is meant to be of many hands, Tyr'oc. You offer yours already. I want to give mine, too.

iv - CW FOR?? FISH BUTCHERY?

[lostpsalm]

<sub>[ it's my character i can rule that his acid magic can be used to conjure, essentially, lemon juice.

which is to say, rennuid looked at the fish pile. left. came back with some bowls and his knife.




throws the extra leftover bits of the fish he definitely just cut up and set to soaking in magic lemon juice in a bowl into the river, when Elsword's between casts. he's chumming the water for you buddy. ]</sub>


Tyr'oc, do you want herbs with yours?

[simplicitas]

[Delicious. Finally some good fucking food.]

You have herbs?

[Notice how he doesn't question Rennuid, yeah this is fine. Someone has to cook all these. And thanks for chumming the waters, it helps with the apocalyptic amount of fish he's fishing up.]

—wait, we have to thank the forest for the food. [Before someone else gets possessed by plants again.]

[lostpsalm]

I always have herbs~.

...

_{[ glances around. It's just them. So... ]}

🎵...thank you, forest. Thank you, fish. Thank you, blood, water, flesh.🎵